Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

How soon he forgets:

When asked to judge the Bush administration this morning during an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said “history will judge that” but then immediately began making an attempt to distance himself from President Bush. One area of “disagreement” McCain cited was torture:

McCAIN: I obviously don’t want to torture any prisoners. There’s a long list of areas that we were in disagreement on –

WALLACE: You’re not suggesting he did want to torture prisoners.

McCAIN: Well, waterboarding to me is torture, OK? And waterboarding was advocated by the administration and, according to published reports, was used. But the point
is, we’ve had our disagreements.

[snip]

McCain seems to forget that he voted against a bill that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding. In fact, when the bill passed, McCain urged Bush to veto it, which he did. Thus, McCain’s claim that he “obviously doesn’t want to torture prisoners” rings hollow. Indeed, because of Bush’s veto, the CIA retains the option of waterboarding
prisoners...

Amazing how easily he forgets inconvenient little facts like, oh, you know, cheerleading for torture. Maybe he was confused - Bush calls it "enhanced interrorgation," and I can see where an immature fuckwit might misunderstand what's actually being discussed.

He's also a bit unclear on the concept of supporting the minimum wage:

Today on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) why he has voted 17 times against raising the federal minimum wage. (Wallace later corrected himself and pointed out it was 19 times, to which McCain dismissively replied, “Well, or 29 or 49, whatever it is.”) McCain initially attempted to wriggle out of answering by talking about tax cuts.

But when pressed again by Wallace, McCain claimed that he opposed the increases only because they were attached to unrelated spending bills:

McCAIN: I’m for the minimum wage increases when they are not attached to other big-spending pork barrel. The practice in Washington is attach a good thing to a bad thing. And that way, then you have to vote yes or no. […]

Well, fair enough. I can almost see voting against the minimum wage increase 19 times because it was attached to odious bills. There's just one problem with that explanation:

Ironically, one of the only times McCain actually did support a minimum wage increase was when it was tied to a war funding bill. But on at least 15 occasions, McCain has opposed minimum wage increases that were stand-alone amendments or bills. On April 7, 2000, he even voted against a non-binding “sense of the Senate” resolution “concerning an increase in the Federal minimum wage.”

Heh heh heh oops. He should'a played the POW card.

McCain seems to be going for the "All lies, all the time" style o' campaign. Sarah Palin's fitting right in there:

The good news is, the McCain campaign is now starting to tell the public about Sarah Palin's accomplishments in Alaska. The bad news is, the principal example of Palin's strength as a leader is a blatant falsehood.

On a couple of the Sunday morning shows, John McCain and his chief surrogates touted Palin's opposition to the now-infamous "bridge to nowhere," a $398 million bridge to connect the town of Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents. To McCain and his supporters, Palin's firm stand against the congressional earmark is compelling evidence of her courage and conviction.

But what McCain and his cohorts are claiming is simply untrue. Palin supported the funding for the project, and kept the federal funds after the bridge deal fell through. Indeed, she ran for governor on a "build-the-bridge platform," and ended up directing federal funds to other wasteful pork projects, for fear of having to return unused tax dollars funds to the federal government.

Perfect match, she is. Lying from Day One, already practiced in abusing power, clueless on foreign policy... he made the right choice for his Veep.

Maybe they think the more outrageous the lies, the more attention won't be drawn away from them and fixed on the monstrous hurricane barrelling down on the Gulf Coast. Poor McCain - his biggest fans are abandoning him to go storm chasing:

Today, GOP officials “announced they would hold only essential party business required under its rules on Monday” at their convention in Minnesota. Party officials “have decided that Monday’s session will open at 3 p.m. Central time and probably end at 5 to 5:30 p.m. and will be limited to official business like adopting the platform and electing convention officers.” The New York Times reports on what the media will be doing:

The major television networks are pulling some of their top talent out of Minneapolis, promising to diminish, if not upend, coverage of the convention. Katie Couric will head to the Gulf Coast to open the “CBS Evening News” from there Monday night, instead of from the convention hall as planned. Charles Gibson of ABC News and Brian Williams of NBC News are expected to do the same.

Yup. Everybody's headed South. Good thing he's decided to head right down there with 'em, eh? Not like he'll be underfoot as authorities desperately scramble to evacuate citizens and save lives at all. Noper.

Anything for a photo op, huh, John? And all Obama's doing is staying the fuck out of the way, monitoring the situation closely without getting underfoot, and preparing to rally millions of donors and volunteers to help with the disaster once the scope of it's known. He's merely acting presidential, not looking it. Silly him.

Stay safe, New Orleans. St. Johnny's on the way: I'm sure all those camera crews and very serious photo sessions will do loads to help you all survive this.